Make Room

Unloading the ship Onego Bayou at Pier 27 has been a laborious process. It has probably been made more so by cold weather and snow since the ship's arrival February 21. The cargo of rails that the ship is delivering for CN must be craned off the ship in small bundles 12m (39 ft) long, then stockpiled on the dock, much liked stacked lumber, to be held until needed by CN. It is then loaded on special rail cars and sent to Winnipeg for welding into continuous welded rail (CWR) ribbons to North American standard 400m (1/4 mile) lengths. [See Shipfax for February 22 .]

Today, February 28, with draft barely reduced since it arrived, the ship moved out to anchor to free up berth space for another ship.

That other ship is the Puka - the oft renamed Nirint Line vessel, with a cargo of nickel sulfides from Cuba. See November 25, 2022  Shipfax post. (It has sailed for Nirint as Trinitas, Hollandia and Nirint Hollandia).

Puka's cargo for Halifax consists mostly of bulk bags (approximately 1m x 1m x 1m / 33" x 33" x 40") which must also be craned off the ship in groups. Once on the dock the bags can be forklifted for storage in the transit shed or loaded onto waiting railway gondolas for shipment to Fort Saskatchewan, AB.

Unfortunately the port now has only one berth for breakbulk shipments like the steel rail or concentrates where a large laydown area is needed and a number of  rail cars must be accommodated. Richmond terminal (Piers 9 to 9C) does not have enough laydown area to store the rails, nor rail siding capacity for either cargo (besides being very awkward for rail access). Pier 30-31 was decommissioned as part of the southend container terminal expansion, leaving Pier 27 as the only remaining open pier. The other Ocean Terminal piers do not have overhead clearance for cranes because of grain galleries.

While the rail and concentrates break bulk cargo may not have the profitability and scale of container traffic, it is an important and regular part of the port's business and having only one berth will inevitably lead to conflicting demand such as it did today.

Puka is expected to complete unloading tomorrow by late tomorrow March 1, allowing Onego Bayou to move back to the berth on March 2.

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MFO charters

 The Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans has once again turned to private industry to provide research capability. With their own ships unavailable due to refits or retirements (see previous posts on CCGS Alfred Needler) the department is continuing needed research but with hired ships. They have recently signed a new three year deal to charter ships, thus ensuring consistent and reliable reports on fish stocks.

Mersey Venture at pier 9 on February 22, 2023.

As it did in 2018 and 2020 the DFO has turned to Mersey Seafoods of Liverpool, NS to charter their Mersey Venture, which is usually idle at this time of year.

See Shipfax  for March 19, 2018 and December 5, 2020.

 Mersey Venture 2020-12-05

From my observation it appears that the ship has made two trips to George's Bank so far this winter, to conduct surveys normally carried out by the now retiredAlfred Needler. DFO's new ship Capt Jacques Cartier has also gone to George's Bank this week.

CCGS Capt Jacques Cartier 2022-03-09)

 

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Steel and Oil and Gypsum

 The general cargo ship Onego Bayou arrived late Tuesday afternoon February 21 with another consignment of rail for CN. The rail comes from the Polish port of Szczecin, but in this case not directly. 

Onego Bayou at Pier 28 (February 22).

After loading the steel January 21 -30, the ship used the Kiel Canal to shortcut the trip to the North Sea. However once clear at Brunsbuttel, the ship made a left turn and sailed up the Elbe to Bremen where it took on some wind turbine components on February 1. It then proceeded to Saint John, NB, arriving February 18. 

Intrepid ship photographer "andrecas" posted a series of excellent photos showing the ship arriving in Saint John, which he posted on Shipspotting.com at:

 https://www.shipspotting.com/photos/3532650?navList=latestPhotos18

After offloading the turbine components it sailed for Halifax February 20.

Construction of the ship was started in 2007 by Yichang Shipyard in China, and completed by Damen, Gorinchem. The 7878 gt, 11,087 dwt ship was fitted with a pair of 80 tonne capacity cranes that can be paired for a 150 tonne lift.  Originally named Uta it became Marmakira in 2014 and Onego Bayou in 2018.

Another February 21 arrival was the tanker Lumen N with cargo for the Nova Scotia Power Corporation's Tufts Cove generating station.

Tying  up at the red and white stacks on the Narrows opposite Pier 9, it was not immediately obvious that the ship is somewhat larger than the usual product tankers we see in Halifax. Built as Ice Blade in 2008 by STX Shipbuilding Co in Jinhae, South Korea, the ship is classed as a LongRange 1 product tanker, measuring 38,955 gt, 63,599 dwt.  The MidRange types that bring refined product to Halifax are in the 50,000 dwt size.

As befitting a DNV Ice class 1A ship it also has a fully enclosed bridge. The ship was acquired and renamed Lumen N in 2013 by Navios Tanker Management Inc, part of the Navios Group, which currently operates 32 tankers of various sizes.

The large "N" on the funnel points to the interesting Navios Group, owned by Angeliki Frangou, a modern day shipping "tycoon". See the Wikipedia page:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angeliki_Frangou

While both the ships mentioned above were busy unloading, the bulk carrier CSL Tacoma has been anchored in Bedford Basin since February 20 waiting to load gypsum.

The stockpile of raw gypsum ore at Gold Bond's dock is rarely as low as it appeared today (February 22). A daily train usually delivers more ore to the site every day, but there has apparently been a hold up. Demand for gypsum is relatively brisk these days, with an average of about a ship a week.The last ship was Rt. Hon. Paul E. Martin on February 13-14, so there has been time to replenish the stockpile under normal conditions.

(above) The much diminished gypsum stockpile (February 20, 2023).

(below) A normal single pile, but there are often two or three piles.(September 5, 2022)

 

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Toreador revisit

 The last time I saw the autocarrier Toreador in Halifax was on August 13, 2020 and as the post on that date shows, the resulting photo was at best of "indifferent" quality! And as per the link my previous photos, taken on May 3, 2016 had the ship in its original Wilhelmsen colours. [Despite the operatic name - typical of Wallenius ships, its name does begin with a "T" in Wilhelmsen fashion.]

Today, February 19, I was bit more fortunate as I was able to catch the ship outbound from Autoport in mid-afternoon.

 The ship is on the usual Wallenius Wilhelmsen transatlantic service from Bremerhaven,  Wallhamn, Goteborg, and Zeebrugge. [Wallhamn is the giant auto import  / export facility in Sweden].

Mitsubishi HI in Nagasaki built the Toreador in 2008. The 61,238 gt, 22,098 dwt ship has a capacity of 6,354 RT43 size cars, and its car decks are served by a 303 tonne capacity stern ramp.

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CMA CGM Andromeda

 Another first caller for the Port of Halifax arrived this morning, February 19. CMA CGM Andromeda is a 131,332 gt, 131,236 dwt ship with a capacity of 11,200 TEU (some sources say 11,300) and was built in 2009 by Hyundai Ulsan. Unusual for a ship of its size, it does not have the split superstructure with bridge and some accommodation isolated forward. Instead it has the wheelhouse aft in the conventional arrangement found on smaller ships.

The ship appears to be on the Ocean Alliance Columbus JAX service (CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen, OOCL) but has varied from the usual port calls. Ships on this Asia / North America east coast service usually sail directly from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Halifax. However this ship's last Asian port of call was Port Klang, Malaysia. It skipped Colombo, but stopped last at Tanger Med, Morocco. 

The ship is expected to call next at New York, Norfolk, Charleston and Savannah before returning to Asia via Suez. 

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MSC Marina

With the world's largest container ship fleet, the Mediterranean Shipping Comapny can keep coming up with "new to Halifax" ships more or less indefinitely. Today's (February 18) arrival then should not be much of a surprise, except for its unusual routing, which also seems to be "new to Halifax". The ship is MSC Marina and is arriving from Savannah, Freeport and Baltimore and is bound to the Middle East on MSC's Indusa service. Next ports of call are King Abdullah Port (Saudi Arabia), Mundra, Nava Sheva and Colombo. The service calls in Halifax eastbound only.

 Built by Hyundai, Ulsan in 2003, the MSC Marina is a 73,819 gt, 85,506 dwt ship with a capacity of 6730 TEU, including 400 reefers.

Last night's freezing rain and snow fall should not delay the ship unduly as PSA Halifax has a large fleet of snow removal vehicles. (Most of which have not seen much action this winter.)

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Scorpio Delivers

 Scorpio Tankers Inc (STI), operates the Scorpio MidRange Pool, a spot market fleet of sixty some ships. STI has a total fleet of 113 tankers of all sizes and the parent company also operates cargo ships and bulk carriers for a total fleet size of some 250 ships. STI is incorporated in the Marshall Islands, but headquartered in Monaco and listed on the New York Stock exchange. Its chairman is Emanuele A. Lauro.

Number 67 on the STI fleet list is STI Maverick, which arrived this morning, February 17 from Amsterdam for Irving Oil. The 29,991 gt, 47,499 dwt ship was built as Marlin Maverick in 2019 by Hyundai-Vinashin Shipyard Co in Ninh Hoa, Vietnam and renamed in 2021. It is equipped with an exhaust gas scrubber system, with the washdown tower appended to the after side of the main funnel, which carries the stylized "s" and scorpion tail logo of the owners.

Today's drizzly conditions prevented a "whole hull" view of the ship from the Halifax side, but there was a good partial view from the former Mobil offshore supply base dock in Woodside, where it appears that some construction activity is about to take place. The dock has not been used since gas and oil activity ceased off Nova Scotia.

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